A Shield, not a judgment of Health. With time, he could obtain not just a third Attack Nullification, but a fourth and a fifth. Not only that, but he would likely be able to acquire other Skills as well.
There were quite a few Skills that depended on Health consumption.
“This is getting fun.”
New possibilities always made his heart flutter.
Taesan moved.
“Karuk!”
A Lizardman thrust its spear. It was fast. But Taesan casually parried it and stabbed its chest.
The sword pierced its heart.
“Kaaaah…”
[You have triumphed against the Spear-Wielding Lizardman.]
[You have accurately attacked the opponent's vital point. You have acquired the Special Passive Skill [Vital Strike].]
“Finally got it.”
It took a bit longer than he thought. Since it was a Skill obtained through repetitive action, he needed to Grind for it, but he hadn't had the time due to the god's Trial and hidden bosses.
[Special Passive Skill: Vital Strike] [Proficiency: 1%] [When you attack an opponent's vital point, you deal greater damage. For now, it seems only half is added.]
It dealt greater damage when hitting places like the heart, neck, or solar plexus. As Proficiency increased, it would add up to three times the damage. It was a Basic Skill obtained through continuous combat, a Skill one must absolutely acquire.
He had finally obtained it. The 6th Floor was now cleared out. Unlike the previous floors, there wasn't much to it, so only the Boss Room remained.
“It should be about time.”
There were no monsters left to bother him. Since it took a while for them to respawn, he could experiment at his leisure. He held out his hand.
[You have activated Fireball.]
Fwoosh.
A flame ignited in the empty air. He stared blankly at the flame flickering above his hand.
[What are you doing?]
“A test.”
Taesan had been testing his Skills. He had checked all sorts of situations and conditions. Now, it was Magic's turn.
[You're trying all sorts of things, huh?]
“The difference is surprisingly big.”
If Taesan hadn't known the activation condition for Deflection, he would have had a very hard time against the two Named Goblins. Not knowing he could get out with an arrow, he would have panicked and barely won. But Taesan had won with ease.
It was all because he had figured out the drawbacks of Deflection through experimentation. It was the same for Magic. With a Magic Staff, he could only use fixed Magic.
But now that he had learned Magic and could use it himself, different results could arise depending on the conditions, just like with Skills.
“Can't I control it?”
He had been trying to sharpen the flame into the shape of an arrow, but it wasn't working. It felt as if it was being forced to maintain its current state.
[A flame arrow. That's a higher-level magic with increased piercing power. If you could control it like that, there would be no reason for different levels of magic to exist, would there?]
“So it doesn't work like this.”
[Not gonna ask me?]
“When I get stuck.”
He would try it himself, and when he got stuck, he would find the answer. It was the method Taesan had favored ever since his time on Earth. This time, he tried using Fireball consecutively.
[You have activated Fireball.]
[You have activated Fireball.]
[You have activated Fireball.]
Several flames appeared in the air. They were all at a fixed distance from each other, not overlapping. Unlike with the Magic Staff, he could use multiple spells at the same time, but it seemed the spells wouldn't merge.
Taesan fired all the created Fireballs at once.
Fwo-fwo-bang!
The sluggish swamp was instantly vaporized. The Fireballs had flown in the shape of a hollow circle.
“This doesn't work either, huh.”
Fire Wall.
A spell called the wall of fire. He had tried to create something similar with Fireball, but no window appeared. Unlike Skills, it seemed that even if you could replicate the effect of a higher-level magic with a lower-level one, you wouldn't learn that magic.
‘Or maybe there's some other restriction.’
For now, that was it for Fireball. He began to check other spells.
Food Production.
[Beginner Magic: Food Production] [Mana Cost: 5] [Summons a small amount of consumable liquid and a consumable solid.]
Taesan held out his hand.
[You have activated Food Production.]
Thud.
A wooden bowl and a wooden cup appeared out of thin air. Inside them were a clear liquid and a thick porridge. Taesan lifted the cup and took a small taste.
“Tastes like water.”
It really was just the taste of plain water, nothing more, nothing less. This time, he scooped a bit of the porridge and ate it.
“…Tastes like porridge.”
It felt like eating something thick with no taste at all. Taesan put the bowl down with a grimace.
“Does anything change with Food Production?”
[Of all the magic I know, Food Production is the blandest.]
A languid reply came back. It meant there was nothing. Taesan quietly put away the porridge.
That left only one magic.
[Beginner Magic: Random Mental Attack] [Mana Cost: 5] [Uses a random, non-beneficial mental magic on the target. Attempts a status abnormality Judgment on the target.]
“I wonder if anything will be different.”
Random Mental Attack used through a Magic Staff was simple. It attempted a Judgment on the opponent. Until it succeeded or failed, you couldn't apply a new Judgment.
You could only use it once at a time. That was the restriction of the Magic Staff. But seeing how Fireball worked, it seemed there was no such restriction when he used Magic himself.
“Can Mental Judgments also be stacked?”
[They can, but it's probably not the kind of stacking you're thinking of. It's the kind where once the first Judgment is resolved, the next one is immediately attempted.]
“So it's sequential.”
Still, that wasn't bad. It meant he could continuously throw the opponent's mind into disarray. Unlike with a Magic Staff, he could attack at the same time as using a Mental Attack.
If so, there might be something to be gained. Taesan deduced various possibilities. The Ghost, who had been watching, asked as if bored.
[Isn't this tedious?]
“It's fun, though?”
Combining things to create something new, pursuing new possibilities. And actually achieving results. There was no reason to find it tedious.
The rough assessment was complete. Magic could be used simultaneously, albeit with a slight delay. And unlike Skills, you couldn't learn new skills just by replicating their effects.
But something felt lacking.
“Does that mean you can't learn Magic on your own?”
[Hmm… that's a bit ambiguous.]
The Ghost spoke in a puzzled tone.
[Magic is either self-awakened by someone with Talent, or passed down from someone else. It's one of the two. Because no matter what you do, like you just experimented with Fireball, you can't learn higher-level magic. But… there are some, from time to time.]
“There are some, from time to time?”
[Talentless people who acquire higher-level magic through the concept of a Skill. I heard news about them occasionally, but… I don't know how they got it. They themselves obtained it by chance and didn't know the method, and they weren't willing to talk about it either.]
People on Earth could easily obtain such information because they had conversations through things like community forums, but these beings had no such platform for information. Information about Skills or Magic was extremely valuable, so it seemed even the Ghost didn't know the answer. Not that it was impossible, but that it didn't know.
That meant there was some other way.
[You have activated Fireball.]
Fwoosh.
A flame ignited in the air. He activated Fireball again. Two flames ignited in the air.
The Fireballs did not merge. Taesan looked at the Fireballs suspended in the air.
‘It’s different.’
A Fireball used with a Magic Staff flew off immediately. But a Fireball used through Magic stayed by Taesan's side until he gave the command. In other words, there were two states.
A stationary, fixed state and a flying, trajectory state. And Fireball had a subtle delay. In terms of time, it was a very subtle delay of about 0.2 seconds.
The speed was something Taesan could keep up with by running.
“Will it work?”
[What will?]
Instead of answering, Taesan drank a Mana potion. His empty mana pool filled up by half. With a single breath, Taesan kicked off the ground.
[You have activated Fireball.]
A Fireball formed next to Taesan as he ran from the end of the room. Matching the speed of the immediately flying Fireball, Taesan ran and materialized another Fireball.
[You have activated Fireball.]
A Fireball formed right in front of the flying one. The two Fireballs overlapped and became a single one.
[Huh?]
The Fireball was about twice as large as before. Taesan glanced at it, then started running again and activated Fireball. This time, too, the Fireballs merged the moment they overlapped.
He repeated this until he reached the end of the room. After a total of five Fireballs merged, a sphere, now clearly larger than before, collided with the wall.
Kwaang!
The room shook with a great roar. It was a level of power that couldn't be produced by a mere Fireball.
[You have learned [Scorching Orb].]
[…So this was the way?]
Unlike when he obtained a Skill, the explanation was very simple. But the fact that he had learned a new Skill was the same.
[Beginner Magic: Scorching Orb] [Mana Cost: 6] [Proficiency: 1%] [Fires a moderately sized Fireball. Deals greater damage to enemies without immunity. Deals considerable damage even to enemies with immunity. Attempts a status abnormality [Burn] Judgment on the target. Possesses minor physical force.]
Various details were added. Seeing the vibration just now, its power seemed to have increased significantly.
[You have activated Scorching Orb.]
A flame ignited. Its size was incomparable to that of a Fireball.
“So this is how it works.”
[So the fixed state and the flying state were completely different judgments… I didn't know.]
The Ghost muttered with a grimace.
“It's not that difficult of a method, is it?”
You just had to run while activating Fireball. But the Ghost spoke as if to say ‘don't be ridiculous’.
[Fireball is a Beginner Magic, you know? And the Agility needed to keep up with a Fireball is something you can only reach much deeper in. By that time, no one uses Beginner Magic. Few even learn magic, so how would they know something like that?]
“Is that so?”
Thinking about it calmly, Taesan’s stats were currently too high. Being able to keep up with a Fireball meant he could dodge it with his eyes closed. By that point, the enemies would have similar stats, so it made sense to discard it.
[And how many people do you think would deliberately experiment to learn like you? Even if there were, they probably learned it by pure luck. Most of them wouldn't even know how they learned it themselves.]
“That makes sense.”
Even Lee Tae-yeon didn't know how she had obtained Addition. She only realized it after Taesan told her.
“I think I get the gist of it.”
It wasn't that he couldn't learn new magic. It was just that, unlike Skills, the various conditions were so strict that it seemed like he couldn't. Taesan stood up and tried various methods.
He shot a Fireball and then an arrow to make a flaming arrow, he tried activating Scorching Orb and Fireball at the same time to overlap them, and he even tried making them collide.
[Ughhh. I'm bored to death.]
The Ghost wriggled its body. Instead of answering, Taesan continued with other experiments. He spent two hours like that.
But whether it was because there was truly nothing else or because the conditions weren't met, he couldn't learn any new magic.
“Is this it?”
In about twenty attempts, he had learned one spell, Scorching Orb. It was a satisfactory result. There had been times when the probability dropped to the decimal points, so a 5% chance was close to a jackpot.
Taesan drew his sword and entered the Boss Room. The Ghost's voice was tinged with excitement, as if it had been quite bored.
[Right. Skills are good, but let's go down the Labyrinth a bit. We can get better stuff if we go down, right? I heard they teach you Swordsmanship on the 7th Floor?]
“Kaak!”
A Lizardman was visible in the Boss Room.
[A Lizardman Fighter has appeared.]
“Kaak!”
The Lizardman charged. Taesan cast magic.
[You have activated Scorching Orb.]
Fwoosh.
The Fireball flew. The Fighter let out a kiai and tried to slice it. At that moment, Taesan launched a mental attack.
[You have activated Confusion.]
“Ka, kaak?”
[You have activated Madness.]
The Fighter's pupils shook. It shook its head to clear the Confusion, and life returned to its eyes. But the Madness Judgment immediately descended.
The Fighter, bewildered by the screams piercing its mind, failed to block the Fireball.
“Kaak!”
[49 Damage dealt to the Lizardman Fighter.]
“49? Not bad.”
At this rate, he could use it not just for harassment, but for dealing damage as well. He cast magic again at the Lizardman, which had barely shaken off the Madness.
[You have activated Scorching Orb.]
[You have activated Helplessness.]
[You have activated Confusion.]
“Ka…”
The Fighter's movements slowed. It shook its body violently to shake off the helplessness, but a Confusion Judgment immediately followed.
[50 Damage dealt to the Lizardman Fighter.]
[Judgment success! The Lizardman Fighter is now in a Burn state.]
He repeated it. Fireball and mental magic were manifested in succession. The Lizardman let out a helpless scream.
“Kieeeeeeh!”
[Poor thing.]
It couldn't do anything. It would be a different story if it could at least swing its weapon to attack, but because of the mental judgments, it couldn't even do that. All the Fighter could do was get beaten up.
“This is pretty good.”
Until now, magic had been nothing more than a supplementary tool. This was because there were many restrictions when using it through a Magic Staff. But now, it was different.
With many of the delays and restrictions gone, he could defeat monsters using only magic. The dying Lizardman was proof of that.
“Kie……”
[You have triumphed against the Lizardman Fighter.]